The much-anticipated Chrome browser for Android has finally arrived.
Google has launched the beta of their popular Chrome browser for Android smartphones and tablets. Currently, Android uses its own variant of Chrome as the native browser, and there are many alternatives, including Firefox, Dolphin HD and Opera.
Says Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Google Chrome, on why it took 3 years to bring the browser over: “We didn’t want to just push out Chrome light. Our goal was to get all of Chrome onto Android.”
If you are already a user of the desktop version of Chrome, the browser should be a great addition to your phone. After logging in to your Google account (and signing into Chrome on your desktop), all your bookmarks will be synced over, and all pages you left open at home will open on your mobile device. Search terms and history will sync over, as well.
There is one catch, you will need Ice Cream Sandwich to use the app.
Result for: search terms
Google-owned Youtube has introduced a new ad platform to turn the heads of advertisers. In addition to traditional text ads YouTube now allows search term based adverts that are displayed on the top of the search results. Like the ones on Google search the YouTube search term ads are separated from the actual results by their background color.
Costing Google a hefty $1.76 billion YouTube has not yet turned into a money making machine. However, the integration of the new ad platform was not as an easy task as one could’ve thought.
“In hindsight, it is a natural transition for YouTube to make. We’ve been working on this for months. The key was, we wanted to make sure we got it right. There are a lot of intricacies involved. YouTube is a video discovery platform. We’ve been integrating with Google AdWords for some time, and now we’re at a place where it can be win and win,” said YouTube product manager Matthew Liu to CNET News.
There are no limitations regarding who can buy the ads but due to the formula used to determine ad placements - combining popularity of the video and money paid - companies will most likely buy off the most popular search terms. There will be however a chance to buy yourself the 15 seconds - or minutes in this case - of fame.
Search ads are currently used only in the U.S. but will be expanded to other countries and regions in the future as well.
